"Are you sure you want to be here for this?" Taylor asked me as we stood in the alley opposite the seemingly abandoned building. The tracks in front of it however were like last time and from experience I knew there were quite a few inside.
"I can't just leave you alone can I?" I smiled though a little fearfully. I didn't have to act for that one.
"Do you know how to fight?" she held a knife out for me.
"Well no…," I replied and left the knife in her hands. "I can be a good distraction though."
She pushed the knife to me, "Take it just in case."
"If you insist," I nodded and with that Taylor moved across the street making hardly a sound. The ground she tread didn't even shift leaving no tracks to follow. She stood with her ear against the door and gestured for me to join her. Well here we go. I crept after her and readied myself to be thrown through the door like last time.
"What are you doing?" Taylor asked me in a whisper.
"Ah… waiting?" She had picked the lock but made no move to shove me inside.
She sighed, "I'll head through the window upstairs. If you really want, go inside and distract them. It'll make things easier for me, just don't get yourself killed."
"Right…," I had to hold back my confusion as Taylor left.
With a calming breath I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind and knocked on the door.
"Hello is anyone inside?" my voice called through the wood. Of course there was no answer and after waiting a few more seconds I entered the building not hiding my presence at all. "Hello?" I called out once more.
The stairs creaked and a women in rough travelling clothes descended the stairs. Yep the same bandit as last time.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked through gritted teeth, hand ready beside her waist.
"Ah sorry," I quickly raised my hands in peace. "I didn't think anyone lived here."
"How did you get inside?"
"The door was unlocked," I lied. "Please, I spent a bit too much at the bar and can't afford the inn. I'm just looking for a place out from the cold to spend the night."
"Unless you want trouble, you should leave," she began to draw her sword.
I backed away, "No need for violence. The building looked abandoned. Please pardon my intrusion. However if you could find it in your heart to let me stay the night, I'd be most appreciable."
"You have ten seconds."
"To stay?" I asked hopefully.
Her eyes flared, "To leave!"
"Well you're not very hospitable are you," I sighed dramatically. "The least you could do is offer me a hot drink."
"That's it!" she went to strike me but before she could even take a step forward Taylor struck her neck and she fell.
"Good job," Taylor complimented me while tying the bandit up. "There were a few people upstairs. You definitely had their attention though, they were watching the stairs like hawks. Easy pickings."
"I'm glad I could be of assistance," I smiled and bowed my head.
"Now all that's left is to get what we need," Taylor left the women and walked upstairs. I followed her to find the same man as last time bound in rope. He really had no luck.
"Mhmm!" he struggled to speak against the gag.
"No need to rush," Taylor smiled and uncovered his mouth.
"You bitch! I'll gut yo-,"
With a slap Taylor shut him up, "Careful now. There are five other people here I can talk to. I don't need you alive."
The man grit his teeth, "I'll never talk-," A glint of steel flashed and a dagger was placed against his neck. "Wait! We're just small time thieves."
"Really? So the messages to the forest were to no one?" the dagger pressed down harder.
The man blanched, "I- I don't know what you're talking about."
Taylor smiled but her gaze held no warmth, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I can tell you right now the hard way involves you screaming in pain as I snap each one of your fingers and then finally when you think it's over, I'll slit your throat. It won't be a quick death either but one where you choke on your blood struggling to breathe."
"Okay I'll talk, just spare me!" the man's eyes were wide with fear. Being told that was one thing, but having a beautiful women like Taylor say it was another experience entirely. Even I was feeling chills.
A minute later we had what we needed and Taylor to my surprise knocked the man out.
"Why do you look so surprised? You didn't think I'd actually break all his fingers did you?" Taylor gently laughed.
"Honestly yes." After all I had seen her do it.
She shook her head and sighed, "Please, I'm still a lady."
It clicked then what was happening. Not throwing me in as a distraction, sparing the man, in fact all our interactions so far had been pretty casual. Was she trying to look good in front of me? Or was it just coincidence? I pushed the thought away.
I gestured to the tied up men, "I'll keep an eye on them while you get the guards."
"Let's switch jobs." She looked at me teasingly, "It's not like you could handle them if something did happen right?"
As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point.
*
"Okay I understand last night but are you really sure you want to be here for this?" Taylor nudged my side as we stealthily approached the forest. The town guards and the Hero's party plus me. We didn't number more than thirty but the fighting potential we had vastly overcame the bandits.
I yawned, "I'm here as the Hero's attendant. It's not like I'll actually be a part of the fighting." The sun had barely begun to rise and coupled with last night's antics I was feeling the drain. If it wasn't for the steady stream of anxiety beating inside my chest I would have fallen asleep in a heartbeat.
Taylor nodded and moved up ahead to where the Hero and the others were. Really I was here to earn brownie points. I already knew the outcome of the battle, so all I needed to do was show my face.
Within a few minutes we had moved into position. The bandits' sentries were taken care of by Taylor and now the Hero and Ardent began to prepare their spell. From what I heard it was a mass subjugation spell made to knock out anyone under a certain power threshold. All I could do was watch from afar as the pretty display of soft lights entertained me. Although I understood the principles of mana, it was from an apothecary's point of view so the spell itself went straight over my head.
A sudden buzz filled the air and the hair on my skin rose uncomfortably. The same light I had seen all those deaths ago sprang into the air. As it reached its peak a blast of pressure descended downwards onto the forest throwing dirt, leaves and birds into the air.
"Charge!" Ronalt yelled from the front as the guards cheered after him. The Hero and the others quickly followed leaving me with a few of the remaining men. Our job was to pick off the stragglers and provide medical attention where needed.
The forest was thick and we advanced slowly after the Hero. Occasionally I would spy a bandit's unconscious body and we would move to apprehend them. The sounds of metal clashing against metal and flashes of light sprang up through the trees as screams filled the sound between them. Even not being in the forefront I could feel the tension in the air. If I didn't know the outcome already I might have broken from the atmosphere.
"Help!" one of the town's guards came running towards us while carrying another. The man on his shoulder was pale and an arrow stuck from his side. "Fen was shot, I think the arrow was poisoned."
He laid the man in front of us as one of the guards quickly saw to the wound, "Did you use the antidote?"
"Yes sir, but it had no effect," the guard was even younger than I was. "Please save him, he took the arrow for me."
They pulled off his armour revealing his chest. A dark purple spread from where the arrow had pierced his side. I sighed internally and moved forward.
"Step aside," I kneeled down to inspect the wound.
"Can you help?" the young guard was begging me with his eyes.
"I'll do what I can," I answered simply and opened my bag. Treating poisons was difficult. While there existed a cure all of sorts, they were incredibly expensive and hard to make. On the other hand, while there were many specific curatives, use the wrong one and it could make it worse.
I took the knife from my kit and used it to pry the arrow from his body. Blood poured down his side. That was the easy part, what came next I was never really comfortable with but it was the way I was taught. I planted my mouth on the wound and sucked out the venom. The guards around me were shocked but I ignored them as I tasted the poison. Finally I spat it out into a vial and took a single leaf in my bag, dropping it into vial as well. The dark colour began to fade and clear.
"It's poison from the purple nettle north of here." I looked to the guards, "Do you have the antidote?" They shook their heads. Figured as much, a small town like Wester wouldn't stock up on foreign poisons. I opened my kit, now I just had to make it in time.
From the reaction of the poison in the man's body I had five minutes at most before he died, which meant I needed to apply the curative in three to make it work. Thinking back to the days I was taught, although I hated being forced to work under pressure, I guess it was all in preparations for times like now. With steady and precise movements I ground up the reagents I needed from my bag. For that I had to thank the Queen, she had really prepared me a fine selection to work with. Usually after grinding I'd need to boil the mixture but there wasn't enough time to heat the water. Instead I took out a vial filled with blue liquid and poured it into the ground up paste. I steeled myself and drank the mixture. It began to heat in my mouth, burning my tongue, cheeks and gums. I held back the pain and spat it onto the man's wound smearing it across his skin and then spat some more into his groaning mouth. The entire process wasn't pretty at all. Within seconds however the dark veins across his chest began to recede.
"Y-you really did it!" the young guard exclaimed.
I couldn't reply as I spat the rest of the goop in my mouth into an empty container and washed my mouth with a premade potion. The liquid cooled down my mouth and quickly healed the burns inside.
"If the enemy is using poison others might be affected as well," the older guard began, "we need to push forward. Sir Rain, please assist us."
"Don't call me Sir and we'll see what I can do," I laughed tiredly.
We moved further into the forest picking up the stray bandits who had fallen due to the Hero and Ardent's magic. Two other guards had also been struck by the poison but thankfully the mixture I had made before was enough to cure them. It was a tedious process and stressful under pressure but most of all the taste of the reagents in my mouth was beyond terrible. The first time my teacher made me do it I had spewed my lunch.
The trees began to thin and the forest opened up to reveal sizeable clearing. Several tents lined the earth and the bodies of dozens bandits laid motionless on the ground. I was beginning to realise that these bandits were much of a threat than I first thought. Ardent and the Hero's spell should have taken out all but maybe a handful of them but looking at the destruction around us, there had been a serious battle. Uplifted chunks of soil, trees broken apart, scars of fire and ice, and that was just some of what I could see. Yet still a few bandits remained standing. They were at their wits end, but the look in their eyes showed their own kind of determination. Earnest approached them leisurely. Like I had been, they were fearful of his strength. One split from the pack running to what looked like the safest route. A young women who looked barely older than a girl, wearing her innocent frock of blue and white. In the next moment however a hammer had crushed his body into the ground. Marley stood above him with a vicious smile. For a so called priest she was sure violent.
The main attraction however was the centre of the camp. The clash of blades spinning against each other as bouts of force pushed through the air causing the trees to sway. The Hero moved with her pure white sword as if dancing, her partner the bandit's leader, a women with flame red hair. I was surprised she could hold so well against the Hero, anyone who could would be at the level of a veteran knight. To those watching however the victor was clear. Not a trace of sweat permeated the Hero's brow.
"You're really something," the bandit coughed and backed away. Her eyes twitched, "Playing with me as if I'm nothing. If you wanted me dead I would be."
"Just surrender now and we can end this all," the Hero stood steadfast with her sword pointed out.
The bandit spat and began to laugh, "Aren't you pure. I can see it in your eyes, in everything you do. This world isn't a fair place Miss. Kill or be killed. Just looking at you makes me want to puke."
The Hero didn't reply but frowned. In that moment something changed, the bandit's expression seemed to turn, glowing with a dangerous excitement. My heart lurched.
"Give me your bow!" I yelled to the guard next to me, snapping him from his reverie.
"Ah what?" he replied dumbly.
"Your bow!" I screamed and thrust my hand for it. Confused he quickly did as I asked. The bandit leader began to make her move. She jumped forward swinging. The Hero easy parried the blow. Would I make it in time? I pointed the bow towards them and drew an arrow. The bandit laughed and threw her sword away. The Hero was frozen, confused as the crazed women lunged directly to the tip of her sword. My concentration peaked and with a small thought I prayed to the Goddess as my arrow flew. The arrow passed by the Hero's shoulder by a hair's breadth and just as the bandit was about to impale herself on the Hero's blade, my arrow struck true, driving into her chest and forcing her to the ground.
"What are you doing!?" Ronalt's voice boomed towards me. His eyes were wide, livid with the intent to crush me. Just like when he had cut my head from my neck.
"No I-," I tried to explain but the pressure he exerted blew away my words leaving my mouth hanging open empty.
"How dare you," Ronalt came up to me his hand poised to strike me down.
"Stop!" with a single word the Hero broke his rage.
Ronalt turned to her, "He could have killed you."
"No… he saved her," the Hero looked at the bandit leader coughing blood on the ground. "Marley heal her so she doesn't die."
"Will do," Marley replied cheerfully and bounded over.
Ronalt remained stubborn, "That arrow could have hurt you."
"But it didn't," the Hero turned her attention to me. "Those last moments, I panicked. I didn't know what to do and she would have died on my sword. Ronalt you promised me I could do things my way and I told you I'd do it with as little death as possible."
His eyes cast downwards, "It was still a risk."
"And it was a risk I'd rather Rain take again or as many times as needed," the Hero was steadfast in her words. "Thank you Rain."
"N-no problem Hero," I bowed awkwardly while still holding the bow.
The clearing settled down and the bandits were all apprehended. The result was zero casualties on either side. A miracle that could only be bought on by a true Hero. I helped with the clean up as my job entailed and soon enough all the bandits were transported to Wester where a regiment of knights would take them to the capital for punishment. With everything over I yawned tiredly next to our carriage. While the others got to sleep and rest, I'd have to make due while driving. On the plus side I knew there wouldn't be any surprises along the way.
"That was a fine shot before."
I opened my tired eyes to see Taylor standing in front of me, "What can I say, I've had training as a Hunter. Just don't ask me to swing a sword."
Her eyes narrowed, "But what intrigues me more is how you knew what she was doing. Just how did you know that bandit wanted to kill herself? Even by the time I realised, it was too late to stop."
Time for a bare faced lie. I turned my head away slightly, "Because I've seen it before, how desperate people can be. The man who taught me how to hunt also took me to visit other towns. He made sure I was prepared to see the worst. The Hero… she doesn't deserve to feel that pain, not yet at least." Finally I ended it all with a weak smile.
Taylor's gaze shallowed in a sombre understanding, "I know all about desperation trust me. Just… you, me, all of us, we can't protect her forever. One day she'll have to take someone else's life. If you ask me, better now than later."
"Maybe, but it's not like I can't help her again." Taylor was right. All in all however, I wanted the Hero to remain pure, so when she smiled she could do it from the bottom of her heart. "Anyway we have a long day ahead of us, so if you don't mind I'm going to catch some z's before we have to leave." With that I waved goodbye and rested on the seat of the carriage happy I was still alive... for now at least.